Considering Public Opinion

Visit the website http://www.pollingreport.com or any other public opinion polling site and find a poll that interests you personally or professionally. Give the topic of the poll, the sample size, and margin of error. Do you think the result of the poll from the sample reflects the public opinion?

Solution Preview

See the attached file.

Visit the website http://www.pollingreport.com or any other public opinion polling site and find a poll that interests you personally or professionally. Give the topic of the poll, the sample size, and margin of error. Do you think the result of the poll from the sample reflects the public opinion?

Topic: Same-Sex Marriage.

Sample Size: From a low of N = 913 to a high of N = 1514 (each of the 4 polls indicates what sample size it used by stating the value of N).

Margin of Error: From a low of +/- 2.9 percentage points to a high of +/- 4 percentage points (each poll cites its own specific margin of error).

Does Poll From Sample Reflect Public Opinion?: These are some well-known and highly respected polling organizations, so yes, their results are probably a pretty good representation of public opinion on this topic. Each of the polls gives polling results over different periods of time and it's especially interesting to see how public opinion has changed over time.